Wednesday, 9 October 2013

Summary: Aquaponic system bio-filter crash
likely caused by chloramine poisoning of bacteria, which then led to buildup of
high levels of ammonia. Subsequent treatments to reduce ammonia in the system
ultimately proved ineffective. Follow us through our trials and tribulations as
we tried to avert an aquaponist’s nightmare scenario.

Prologue
2

Like any good suspense thriller, this story combined
danger with time sensitivity. The narrative begins the day we transported some
of our resident tilapia to a customer’s house. After many hours of preparation,
we successfully transported 20 of our resident tilapia over to the customer’s
house and to this day they are happily swimming in their new back yard home. At
the time our system’s water condition was conducive to growth: water
temperature was ~24 degrees Celsius and no ammonia or nitrite. However, the
system maintained stable but high pH ~6.8 that rarely went down.

Having accomplished a major feat, we refilled
our system’s fish tank with water from our reservoir à la water poured into a
tub and allowed to sit. Secure with the fact that all would be well, we decided
that no further water tests were required. After all, what could dechlorinated
water do to our system…